Golden Eyes
by Ejes
Summary: If there was one person I thought would be strong enough to fight Darkness back, it would be her. But I was wrong, and that wasn't a good thing at all. She carried so many people's hopes... Including mine. I couldn't let her throw them away. Even if that meant helping her.


_**I wanted to write some proper VanQua following the trailer, but my brain hasn't worked it out yet. Instead, have something a liiiittle less OOC... x'D So no ship ahead!**_

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I knew the second I saw her troubles were coming - I might even have known _before_ seeing her. Also the fact that she fired something that exploded where I stood the second before did comfort me in my idea.

"Isn't that Aqua? Glad to see you're back! Is that a new look? I love it!"

I didn't like it. I hated it. This silver hair, these golden eyes - She looked way too much like us. Like _them_. I really, really hated it.

I jumped back again, as she threw another powerful spell at me. She was going all out. There was so much anger in her golden eyes. I was glad she couldn't see my face, because I refused to let her see my surprise, or the fact that I was struggling to dodge.

"Good girls should greet people before attacking them. Have you forgotten it all in the Realm of Darkness?"

Her Fira almost touched me, and I could feel the heat as it grazed my helmet. Was it fireproof? I hoped I'd never know.

"I've got a job to complete. Destroying you." While her voice was still the same, I barely recognized it, not used to hear so much hate from her. She really was different.

"Aqua, no! Wait!" The dumb hero, Sora, Guardian of Light in chief was staring at us from afar, obviously unsure about what to do. Could he really step in and stop her? I was an enemy. Letting her kill me would be good for their business. But he was also a little boy with too big of a heart, and he could see all I was doing was dodging, and never attacking, and that probably confused him. He couldn't attack me with no good reason. I would have liked if Aqua shared his ideals - although she had plenty good reasons to attack me.

It had been a peaceful day, really. Spreading Unversed across this world, listening to people scream… Until I heard a voice scream my name from behind and ended up trying to survive the fury of a harpy.

The first thing I noticed was that her Keyblade wasn't the one she used to wield - and it wasn't her stupid Master's either. Her spells weren't as powerful as they used to be, either, but I knew that she would kill me at my first mistake.

She hated me, that was obvious. But my hate for what she had become was probably even greater than that. This wasn't in the plan. She wasn't supposed to turn like that. To become _one of them_. Why did she succumb to Darkness? Why, of all people, _her_?

"Get a hold of yourself, Aqua." I rolled to avoid getting hit bit a lighting strike. "I thought you hated Darkness. I thought you weren't a quitter." Her precision was getting better. She started reading through my moves. That wasn't good. "Unless you want to finish like Terra? Want to end up a Vessel? They're always up for some fresh blood, you know." The next lightning struck me, and I gritted my teeth to avoid screaming. It hurt. And there was no HP orbs around. I would have to be more careful. Also, her silence was getting on my nerves, for some reason.

"Listen, Aqua, I usually wouldn't have minded being killed by you… No, erase that, I would have minded anyway, but that's not you right there. You have a job to do, and I cannot let you ruin that. So why don't you fight this Darkness, rather than me? How does that sound?"

That sounded like a _oof_ \- the sound I made when the fireball hit me in the chest. My HP were now really low. Too low. One last direct hit and I would be done.

Of course, I had an idea, but I didn't know if that was a good one. If that would work. For all I knew, that could just be the end of me. But I remembered my objective, and I knew I had to do it. If I did not, I was as good as dead anyway.

I teleported right behind her and threw my arms around her in the tightest embrace I could pull.

Before you start imagining anything, this was nothing cute. This wasn't a sign of affection, appreciation, whatever. If anything, that was closer to a wrestler about to pull a sneaky move. But that was the best way of using my newly acquired power.

This was a skill I had developed in Monstropolis. I used to create Unversed out of my own negativity - a curse more than a gift, as it hurt to create them, hurt when they returned to me, and basically hurt to live on a daily basis. But I had learnt how to turn other people's feelings into Unversed, offering a wider variety of creatures. Physical contact wasn't mandatory (I wasn't really fond of the idea of hugging anyone, mind you) and usually their screams were enough to fuel my power. Strangely enough, I did not create Unversed thanks to their negativity - I _converted_ that negativity into Unversed. What a villain I was, soothing people's pain away.

And that was pretty much my plan right now. As I said, hugging wasn't usually mandatory, but: 1. I really had to immobilize her before she'd kill me, and 2. The closer I was to her heart, the easier it would be.

"I need you to stay still, Aqua." I grunted. "It shouldn't take long. I know you won't, but trust me here."

I could feel it. All that negativity. All these feelings darkening her heart. Unlike people like me, or Xehanort, her heart had plenty of Light - Darkness just toyed with her feelings, troubling her heart, but she wasn't lost forever.

There was so much pain. It almost matched mine. She was grieving her lost Master, grieving her peaceful days.

So much loneliness. I could relate to that, too. She had spent a decade alone. She had lost her faith in people.

So much anger. Once again, a very familiar feeling. Angry at us. Angry that no one helped her sooner. Angry she was so helpless.

So much fear. While our reasons differed, it felt like reading my own heart. Fear of being too late to save her friends. Fear of this Darkness within her.

"Will you stop struggling?!" I snapped as she was trying to set herself free. Couldn't she understand I was trying to help? Instead, she started screaming. Kicking. Biting. The second her role was over, I'd kill her myself.

"What are you doing to her? Let her go!" How cute was that Sora boy yelling at me in the distance. He still wasn't moving, though. Was he trusting me? While at this point he was right to do so, that was still a stupid move.

I started to let my powers do their work. Aqua fell to her knees, screaming even louder, a shriek of pain and sadness and all of her feelings altogether. My body absorbed them, and it hurt even more. Absorbing a child's scream because he had a nightmare was one thing. Absorbing twelve years of Darkness influence was another. I created Unversed as quickly as I could, giving shape to her pain. Deadly dragons. Destructive Basilisks. Chaotic phoenixes. The sky was turning dark from all these monsters. The ground was shaking. There were just so many, an endless flow of her agony.

Then, after what felt like an eternity, her scream slowly started to die. She had stopped struggling, feeling like a rag doll in my arms. I could feel her heart beating against my arm. And I could feel most of the Darkness was gone.

Her hair had turned back to that ridiculous shade of blue, and although I did not see her face, I knew her eyes had, too. I threw her body over my shoulder - she was too stunned to protest.

I walked straight to Sora. He was frowning at me, his keyblade pointed at me, but didn't look very menacing.

"You helped her."

"So I did." I dropped her on the ground at his feet.

"Why?" The question wasn't even from him. It was from her. She did not even try to move, her body still awkwardly prostrated on the ground, and yet she was staring at me, the trauma from having all of her pain extracted that way still painted all over her face.

"Why?" I scoffed. "You can't die just right now, Aqua. You have a job to to. I swear I'll finish you off once you're done, but until then, _we_ need you in a good shape."

"A job?" Sora repeated, furrowing his brows. "She won't do anything for you. Ever."

I shrugged. "Oh yes, she will. Lucky you found me, I don't think the others would have been that gentle." Although he couldn't see my smirk, I still offered him one. "If you want a friendly advice - don't kill these Unversed just yet. Who knows? All that negativity could return to her, and it would aaaall have been to nothing. Good luck! We'll meet again… And that time, I will kill you, Aqua. It will be payback time."

I opened a portal behind me, quickly retreating before the kid had the idea of stopping me. I couldn't stop thinking about how close to failure the plan had been.

But now, things were set right again. She would get her keyblade back. She would save Ventus.

I would see Ventus again.

I would be whole again.

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 ** _Hope you enjoyed!_**

 ** _For those reading Aqua's letter, the next one will be posted early (tomorrow night), because I won't have access to a computer next week (going on holidays, Scotland here I come!). I was supposed to update "The day I fell for you" today, but it felt more right to post this following the E3 trailers! Will update once I'm back ^_^_**


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